Metsä Board Designs New Arctic Blue Gin Package With Holographic Northern Lights Flare

Metsä Board, the leading European producer of premium fresh fiber paperboards has designed the Arctic Blue Gin package for the U.S. market with a dramatic holographic design inspired by the Northern Lights. Arctic Brands Group Ltd, the Finland-based spirits company, tapped Metsä Board to design the dramatic package using MetsäBoard Pro FBB Bright Paperboard.

The gin brand uses natural products like herbs and berries from the forest to produce its distinctive taste. Metsä Board designed the package structure, the original graphics, and the embossing.  Hazen, the paper converter, designed the holographic effect, the opaque white plates for rendering the effect, and incorporated a PMS spot-color green plate to highlight some detail in the package.

“We wanted to convey an image of a clean, crisp winter night highlighted by the flaming exotic Northern Lights. In the US, this really stands out and provides exceptional visual elements for maximum brand enhancement,” says Mark Beamesderfer, Packaging Services Director, Metsä Board. 

The Northern Lights image is reproduced by printing over a holographic metallization effect created with transfer-metallized Envirofoil ®, which uses less than 1% of the aluminium of traditional foil laminate and no plastic, making it economically and environmentally friendly. The result is as close to an actual Northern Lights flare as printed materials can accomplish.

“Producing such highly challenging print requires a lot from the material. Smoothness and stiffness are needed to get the large hologram surface adhered to the paperboard without any flaw. Here the Metsä Board team was able to deliver,” says John Hazen, President of the Hazen Paper Company. “The type of paperboard has a very uniform smooth surface, scores and folds exceptionally well, and has economic and environmental superiority. It is an optimal paper to transfer metallizing application and ideal for a high-end graphic arts application. It has both beauty and brawn,” Hazen adds

AM Packaging handled the printing and Jamie Meadows, president, AM Packaging, says, “Sustainability is an important trend in the beverage market. Metsä Board material worked extremely well on all phases of the process: press, embossing, die-cutting and gluing. The resulting package is one-of-a-kind carton that is going to turn lots of heads on the shelf,” he adds.

Source: Metsä Board

  Arctic Blue Gin, Arctic Brands Group, Metsa Board, Packaging Design